Dalwhinnie

In 1897 John Grant, George Sellar and Alexander Mackenzie put up about £10,000 to build the Strathspey distillery between the Great North Road and the Highland Railway.^1,2,3 Production began in February 1898, but by the summer the business was being wound up.^4,5,9 In 1898 John Somerville & Co and AP Blyth & Sons bought it, and the distillery took the name Dalwhinnie.^1,4,5 The new owners hired Charles Chree Doig to make changes to the plant.^4,5,9

In 1905 Cook & Bernheimer, then America's largest distillers, bought it at auction for £1,250 and ran it through the Leith blender James Munro & Son.^4,5,6 As Prohibition began in America in 1919, the Leith blenders Macdonald Greenlees, chaired by Sir James Calder, bought the distillery.^4,5,9 In 1926 the Distillers Company Limited took over Macdonald Greenlees and licensed the distillery to James Buchanan & Co.^4,5,10 By then Dalwhinnie was a core part of Buchanan's blend, Black & White, and in time became its spiritual home.

On 1 February 1934 a fire closed the distillery for four years.^1,5,10 Winter snowdrifts 20ft high slowed the rebuilding, and it reopened in April 1938.^4,5,10 Production stopped again in 1940 because of wartime limits on the use of barley.^5,11